


Sleeping Arrangements

by QianLan



Series: Same Universe, Different Day [3]
Category: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Domestic Fluff, Established Relationship, M/M, POV Poe Dameron, Sleep
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-25
Updated: 2016-09-25
Packaged: 2018-08-17 04:29:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,274
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8130421
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/QianLan/pseuds/QianLan
Summary: Sharing a bed takes some adjusting.





	

 

Poe valued his sleep.  Really, really valued his sleep.  He was grouchy when anything came between him and his sleep, and Poe Dameron was never grouchy.

 

Except when he didn’t get his sleep.

 

Which was why it took some adjusting to get used to having not just a roommate—he’d had enough of those in his life to acclimate to odd sleeping patterns and weird noises in the night—but someone who shared his bed regularly.

 

When he and Finn had just been sleeping around, it was one thing, but after Finn moved in, Poe had to come to terms with what having someone else in his bed— _no, it’s our bed now_ , Poe reminded himself—what having someone else in _their_ bed meant.

 

And what it meant was that Poe was getting far less sleep than he used to.

 

Poe was a first-class cuddler, though, so at first, he thought having a constant companion in bed was going to be nice.  But as he was, as Finn put it, _hotter than a fragging furnace_ , Poe had learned very early on that he was supposed to give Finn his space.  That was a bit frustrating. 

 

Sure, Poe was prone to sweat through his sheets, and if he draped himself around Finn, sometimes the heat became unbearable.  But still, they were boyfriends!  They were supposed to cuddle.  Sweat be damned!

 

Finn, it turned out, didn’t share that sentiment.

 

So, Poe adjusted.

 

And then he adjusted some more because there were the other distractions…

 

Poe wasn’t necessarily a light sleeper.  As a pilot, he’d had to train his body to be able to take advantage of long periods stuck in hyperspace, ignoring the buzz of the ship’s electronics to catch up on some much needed rest.  But Poe also had to be attuned to the sounds around him.  He had to be able to wake up quickly should an alarm sound or if BB-8 said something. 

 

It was a blessing and a curse.

 

And, Poe reminded himself, if he could train himself to do that, he could train himself to sleep next to anyone.  Even Finn. 

 

Loud, constantly moving Finn.

 

It’s not like Poe was still at night.  He tended to shift and move, but those were small movements: rolling over or adjusting his pillow.  Not like Finn.

 

No, Finn was an erratic sleeper.  Coming off of whatever drugs the First Order had had him on meant that Finn’s body wasn’t used to being able to move at night.  As a result, Finn was prone to sudden strange movements.  An arm jutting out here.  A leg kicking there.  Bending his knees like he was doing sit-ups and sleeping with his legs like that all night long.  Raising an arm into the air as if asking a question and leaving it up there for hours.  It was disconcerting the first time Poe saw it.  Now, he just had to learn to avoid Finn’s roaming appendages lest he get hit in the face.  Again.

 

That had been a fun trip to the med bay.

 

But there was also the talking.  It seemed that whatever cocktail of drugs Finn had been on in the First Order had kept him quiet.  Now, he was a sleep talker.  And the odd thing was, when he was asleep, Finn tended to speak in highly coherent sentences.  He also responded to prompts and questions.  This meant that early on, Poe didn’t realize he was talking to a sleeping man until the next day when Finn would have no memory of the conversation.

 

That had led to more than one awkward revelation the next morning. 

 

Poe had learned to stop asking important questions or making plans with Finn late at night.  Yet, Poe still found himself chatting up an unconscious Finn from time to time.  It was uncanny and sweet—until that chatter woke Poe up in the middle of the night.

 

It seemed sometimes Finn liked to narrate his dreams.  Loudly.

 

And if Poe heard Finn describe one more game of sabacc or lead a group of Pathfinders into one more battle…

 

But the worst was the nightmares.  Poe was no stranger to nightmares, but Poe—verbose, talkative, chatty Poe—didn’t really talk much in his sleep.  So his nightmares tended to be quiet, punctuated by a gasp of breath and the need to reach over and touch Finn.

 

That, Poe had to admit, was one of the benefits of having Finn in his bed.  Poe would jerk awake from a nightmare, but all of the panic that flooded his system would recede if he could put a hand on Finn’s skin—as if Finn were some sort of magical balm for what ailed him.  Just knowing that Finn was nearby was usually enough to calm Poe down.  He might not get back to sleep, but he felt better with Finn around.  It made the nightmares bearable.

 

But Finn wasn’t soothed in the same way. 

 

First of all, he rarely woke up the way Poe did.  Rather, Finn would start thrashing about and babbling or worse, whimpering.

 

It always woke Poe up.

 

He also had to be careful not to get hit, as Finn tended to lose control of his limbs during bad dreams.  But once Poe realized what was happening, he would roll towards Finn, talking in a calm voice.  “It’s okay, buddy.  I’m here.  Poe’s here.”  And then he would lightly touch Finn.  He found it worked best with a hand to the chest or back.  He’d rub small circles, saying whatever he could think of to calm Finn down, and eventually the whimpers and the erratic movements would settle.  After several minutes, Finn would stop moving and quiet completely.

 

Poe always felt useful when this happened, but the problem was, he could never get back to sleep.  He’d spend the next few hours watching Finn, trying to protect him from whatever ghosts were haunting him—even if he knew that was ridiculous. 

 

And he was always grouchy and sleep-deprived the next morning.

 

When Finn found out about the nightmares and Poe’s overprotective streak, he offered to sleep in his room a few nights a week or on the floor of Poe’s room, but Poe wouldn’t hear of it. 

 

Eventually, though, after two bad nights in a row, Finn insisted, moving back into his unused bunk for the night.

 

It was the worst sleep Poe ever got.  He missed the sounds of Finn’s breathing and the strange conversations he’d have with asleep Finn as he drifted off.  He missed the movement next to him. 

 

And then, when he finally did get to sleep, he had a nightmare.  He reached out, and there was no one there to touch.  No Finn to ground him and bring him back.  He was terrified and before long, crying. 

 

Poe pushed himself out of bed, wiping his eyes.  He got up, didn’t put a shirt or any shoes on, simply wandered to Finn’s room, keying in the code and crawling into Finn’s bed.  “You can’t do that to me, buddy.  I need you,” he said to his sleeping boyfriend.

 

“Okay,” Finn said.  “Sorry,” he mumbled.  “Won’t happen again.”

 

“You have no idea what I’m talking about, do you?”

 

“No,” Finn said, still 100% asleep.

 

Poe smiled.  He hugged Finn to him a bit tighter.  “Love you.”

 

“Love you too, Poe.”

 

Poe drifted off slowly, aware that between the two of them, the heat they were generating was going to make for a very sweaty morning.  He didn’t care.  As Finn’s leg kicked his, Poe smiled.

 

 _Sleep is overrated_ , he thought as he sighed into Finn’s neck. 

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> You can find me on tumblr: @cha-llamala


End file.
